Mom, Mama, Drew and Jack

Friday, October 31, 2008

Any teacher out there knows how horrid Halloween Day is at school! The kids are insane, sugared up, overtired, and excited. You see, in the town we teach in, the kids trick-or-treat on "beggar's night" - October 30. Yep, that was last night - so not only were they out way too late, they fueled up on sugar before they went to bed and for breakfast! Oh, and just to keep on the sugar high, they make sure that they bring plenty to school with them for snack too! As teachers, we count down the hours until the day is over.MJ and I work at two different schools on Fridays. At the school that I work at - the kids are not allowed to wear their Halloween costumes, but are asked instead to dress up in a way that portrays a vocabulary word for the vocabulary parade. I decided that I wasn't going to use one of the lame words they were giving out, so instead I picked my own. With the help of MJ we decided that I was going to be a ketchup bottle aka "condiment"! Everyone thought that this was just the most clever idea. So, here I am in all my glory as a ketchup, I mean condiment bottle!

Now, of course MJ needed a costume too, but she works at the fun school where they could wear their Halloween costumes. It is also Red Ribbon (Be Drug Free) Week and there was a door decorating contest at school as well. Her team (4th grade) decided to use the Wizard of Oz as a theme. They all did their doors according to a character from the movie and made a yellow brick road into all of the classrooms. MJ go to be the tin man. I think they did a marvelous job and they won the contest too! Here are some pics of MJ in her costume, the doors, and her team all dressed up!

In TTC news - the IUI went PERFECT yesterday. My cervix was wide open, and they were able to do the IUI with no problem at all. The doc said the swim team looked great and that my girlie parts looked great too. According to my AM temps, I don't think we could have timed it any better either. Let's just hope those swimmers are racing for the gold right now! We are thinking very positively!

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

So, I guess I'll start with a couple of pics from MJ's birthday. It was actually really low key and we had steak tips, mashed potatoes, asparagus and some wine for dinner. Then MJ opened her presents and we had carrot cake for dessert. Sadie had a wonderful time "helping" with all of the wrapping and tissue paper too. It was a really nice night!

On the TTC front - my blood work was good yesterday, my LH and progesterone made large jumps to right where the doc wanted them to be. The only disappointing part is that my estrogen level actually started dropping and it only got to 216 - which is low - around 300 would be better. But, I am really confident that we did everything right this time and it is up to the powers that be at this point. We finally got the meds working right and I have a nice follice instead of lots of cysts. We'll see what happens at this point - I feel really good about it all! Think good thoughts and send baby dust our way at 10:15 tomorrow morning.

So, based on the bloodwork, I need to wait just a wee bit longer. I ordered the swim team today, did a double dose of follistim and will have bloodwork tomorrow morning again. Tentative plan is to trigger tomorrow night for a 10:15 IUI on Thursday!

Sunday, October 26, 2008

As most of you know, MJ and I are both teachers. We work together in a school of about 80 staff members and I also work in another school on Friday that has about 20 staff. MJ has 18 students as well, do the math there and you get 118 people. Then add on the fact that my mother has about 20 people who work in her department and 5 really cute kids in the neighborhood. Grand total of all of these people is 143! That's a lot of people!

Well, yesterday we (mom, MJ, and I) spent the day making wonderful little Halloween treats for all of these people. It started with making cute Halloween candies for everyone to have. Now, we would have been a bit ahead of the game had Willy the dog not eaten 6 pounds of previously made candies (see previous post). So, we had to start over with the candy making. We made a bunch of different molds - here are a couple of them:

Now, with all of this candy, you have to have a fun package to put it all in. So, the picture below is what we made for the candies - they are in a small bag inside of this. I think they came out pretty well! We made 145 of these things in about 6 hours!

We had lots of fun making them and it is great to see the smile that they bring to peoples faces!

Now, today we have to make our Halloween costumes for next week. MJ is going to be the Tin Man as her team is dressing up as the Wizard of Oz. I am going to be a ketchup bottle, as the school that I work at has "vocabulary" parade - so I am going as a condiment!

Thursday, October 23, 2008

That is how things are progressing with my ovaries. I had more bloodwork and another ultrasound today. The doc was really pleased with the way things are looking. My levels are low in the bloodwork still, but she was really pleased with what she saw on the ultrasound. We were pleased as well. It seems like for once, things are going along decently. The best part was that there were not a lot of "grapes" in my ovaries, just three good follicles.

I have 2 11mm follicles on the right and one 11mm follicle on the left. My lining is 8mm which is good too. More blood work and another ultrasound on Monday.

In other fabulous news - we came home today, and Willy - the dog had eaten about 6 POUNDS of candy that was on the counter - we had been making Halloween Candy Treats. Needless to say that candy came out BOTH ends and there was quite a mess to clean up!

Friday, October 17, 2008

So, I went to the doctor's today to see how things are going. And the answer is..............VERY slowly! They have me on a much lower dose of meds for a longer period of time this time and they are hoping my body will react better to that. I had three follicles - 2 on the right at 10 and 11 mm and one on the left at 10 mm. That is a good start!

I go back for blood work on Monday and we'll see where to go from there.

Nothing much up for the weekend - I have class tomorrow all day, so MJ will chill with the dogs - no plans for Sunday either - sounds just fine to me!

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

So, I came home today to a huge box waiting for me. In it was a whole bunch of treats - medication treats, that is! Just in time to get the evening cocktail ready. This will get me through the rest of my cycle with a bit left over. I am thinking positively and saying that I won't need the extras because I will finally be pregnant!

It amazes me when I open up these boxes and think about how fortunate we are that my insurance covers my meds. The picture above contains $1800 - yes that is one THOUSAND eight hundred dollars worth of meds. It cost me $3 - yep, three whole dollars. We are so lucky!

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Just a quick update on the TTC front - I went for bloodwork this morning and things are progressing VERY slowly. I go in on Friday for bloodwork again and also an ultrasound. My doctor decided to switch things up a bit this time and I am going to stay on a low dose of the Follistim for longer. Usually this is the night we double the dose for the rest of the cycle, but we are going to stick with it at the low dose. The reasoning behind this is that I usually make a ton of follicles that are all "stealing" the estrogen bit by bit. The doc thinks that if I stay on a lower dose, we may be able to make one nice big juicy follicle with a good egg and a good estrogen level. Hey - I'm all for it - anything different that might work this time is fine by me!

Monday, October 13, 2008

We had a fabulous weekend on the Cape! We go every year with Laura, Sue, and Olivia for Women's Week in Provincetown. We camped at Nickerson State Park, which is the same place we went camping in June. It is such a gem of a little place. This time our campsite was 3 1/2 miles from the entrance to the park. This place is HUGE! We had another great site, and we scoped out some sites that we would want for next summer as we will definitely go back again.

On Saturday we met Laura and Sue in Provincetown to spend some time together and do some shopping. We took some pictures near the ocean when we first got there. It was just a spectacular day weather wise! Olivia did a nice job taking a picture of all four of us as well - not bad for a five year old!

On Sunday, we met Laura, Sue, and Olivia at our favorite breakfast buffet restaurant - Michael Shay's. A trip to the Cape wouldn't be complete if we didn't go there for breakfast! After that, we went to Cuffy's - a great t-shirt shop, and then we headed back to the campsite. We played some dice and card games for a while and then we went for a bike ride. They have a great paved bike trail right at the campground.

After our bike ride, Laura, Sue, and Olivia came to our campsite and we roasted hot dogs over the fire. Then we made banana boats, pudgy pies, and smores around the fire. All in all it was a perfect weekend!

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Well, we are back in the game - the TTC (trying to conceive) game that is! It is too funny, because just this morning, we were discussing how if I started my cycle this weekend, we would have to sit out another month because there are very strict "rules" about doctor's appointments and starting meds on specific days, etc. We were kind of bummed out at the thought, but figured that there wasn't anything we could do about it.

Wouldn't you know- I started my cycle today - and that makes everything work out PERFECTLY for doctor's appts, etc. I go tomorrow morning for baseline bloodwork and an ultrasound. Then I always do 5 days of meds and go back for bloodwork, which puts us at Tuesday - again perfect considering this is a long weekend. It also looks like we won't have to worry so much about the insemination falling on a weekend either - could it be that things are lining up for things to work out this time? One can certainly be hopeful!

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

So, the title sums up our weekend! Saturday was all about apples, and Saturday evening and Sunday were all about good friends and playing Wii. Let me explain...

Saturday morning we went with my mom and her 5 year old neighbor to Apple Harvest Day. It is a great annual event where the streets are closed to traffic and lined with vendors of various things. Then, when you get to the end there is a park that is filled with food vendors and kiddie rides. The sun was shining and the day was just gorgeous.

Then we went apple picking at a fun orchard near our house. The apples are so yummy!!! Of course we had to take some silly pictures with the cut - outs! It was fun because my mom could take the pictures as we are usually there just us and no one to take a picture.

Then, in the evening, Laura, Sue, Olivia, and Gracie the dog came up to visit and spend the night. We haven't seen them for a while, so it was nice. I haven't seen them since before my birthday, so they brought up a cake to make for me. Olivia banished me to the dining room and gave me some of her toys to play with while the cake was secretly decorated! :)

We then had TONS of fun playing Wii. Olivia got the hang of it really quickly and surprised us with her coordination. We had most fun racing each other on the Outdoor Adventure game.

It was a great weekend, and we are looking forward to next weekend when we will go camping on Cape Cod. We are going back to the same place we went in June - a beautiful state park. We always go down Columbus Day Weekend as it is the beginning of Women's Week. We go every year with Laura and Sue - this year they are chickening out on the camping though and they are staying in a hotel. We will have lots of fun together, though! P-town is always fun!

Monday, October 6, 2008

Ok, Ok, so I know I have been a bad blogger - so here is an update and I promise another tomorrow - truth is, I will write them both now and schedule one to post for tomorrow! So, after the perfect rainy Sunday post last weekend, we headed into the basement to finish tackling the mess. It needed to be done so badly. We ended up building another table for the scrapbooking room, putting together about 10 bins for yard sale stuff, 4 garden cart loads of trash, and 2 bins of stuff for freecycle!

Here is the basement before:

And After:

It is so nice to have that done!

As for last week - nothing special other than that. We decorated for Halloween which was fun.